Christmas Decorations

I've mentioned before that I love Christmas and I love decorating for Christmas, so I thought I'd share with you some pictures of our decorations. Since this is our first Christmas in our house, it's kind of a hodgepodge of stuff that I've been buying over the years. (I love shopping on the day after Christmas!)

I've already shown you our tree,(which is still topper-less and skirt-less) so let's look at some other decorations.

Here's our "mantel."

We don't have a fireplace, so the top of our entertainment center became our mantel. I actually have ideas for decorating this, but I don't have any of the supplies I need and I'm waiting until after Christmas to buy them. So this year, I went with simple decor. I did buy the garland this year. It's from Target and it was on sale one week, so I grabbed it. The angel lamps hold tea lights and were a gift from a student years ago. I should have taken a closer picture so you could see how pretty they are.

The manger scene has a bit of a story behind it. Every year at the church I grew up in, the children receive a piece of it. How old you are determines which piece you get. I believe you start with the baby Jesus. These are hand carved figures, but I cannot remember where they come from. I believe it is either Israel or an African nation. I have all the pieces that my brothers and I received over the years. I'd like to point out that the 3 figures on the right are shepherds and not the Wise Men as I don't put the Wise Men in until Epiphany. (and yes, I know I really shouldn't put Jesus in until Christmas, but I thought it looked odd without him, so there he is.)

How about a quick look at our dining room table before it became gift wrapping central?
I really don't have ideas for this area because eventually our dining room will actually be decorated and have a theme. So this year, I just used what I had. The runner is from Kohl's and is always on the table as it actually is part of the theme.
This little tree was my Christmas tree when I lived in my college dorm. I got him at Target. I did decorate it with little ornaments, but a certain cat thinks they are fun to play with, so I've been finding them all over the house.

That's the majority of our Chistmas decorations! Next time, I'll show you my very first DIY craft that I made for our house!